The bikes are slow.

Citi Bikes are hefty and designed to move at moderate speeds. (As a person who passes more than a few of them every time I ride my bike, I'm putting this lightly.)

Todd Schneider, an engineer at Genius, analyzed 22 million Citi Bike rides and found that average speeds for Citi Bikes was about 8.3 miles per hour. The average speed on a regular bike is 11 to 12 miles per hour, observations of bike lanes in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Bicycle crashes happen because of a combination of factors, but studies have shown that slower speeds, especially along intersections with limited visibility, make for safer commutes.

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The tires can withstand bumps and potholes, and the seats are flat, keeping riders upright.

Michael Yap & Zack Davenport

Citi Bikes have wide tires, much like mountain bikes, which allow them to easily weather bumps, potholes and uneven surfaces.

Researchers at the Mineta Transportation Institute found that riders experience increased stability when using wider tires. They also found that, because the Citi Bike seat is below the handlebars, riders are more likely to sit upright, maintaining better balance. On regular bikes, most handlebars are below the seat, which forces riders to lean forward and makes them more susceptible to falling over if they hit a bump.

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The bikes are bright and highly visible.

The same study also found that Citi Bikes have increased visibility — the bikes are painted electric blue and include front and back lights, accessories that most regular cyclists have to buy separately.

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Safety is not just about the bikes — building safer roads helps, too.

According to studies, protected bike lanes can cut the number of bicycle injuries in half. And they also help drivers notice nearby bikers. The number of bike lanes in New York has more than quadrupled since 2007.

"The data shows that it is really the municipal commitment to large-scale roll-out of protected bike networks and other road safety work (like reducing the speed limit and Vision Zero), combined with more cyclists on the road, that is making things safer," Kate Fillin-Yeh, the Bike Share Program Director for the National Association of City Transport Officials tells Tech Insider.

Plus, having more cyclists on the road makes them more visible.

And data gathered in New York indicates that the increased volume of cyclists Citi Bike has created is helping so far.

"Since 2000, the number of cyclists in NYC has gone up 4-fold," Fillin-Yeh says. "At the same time, the number of cyclists killed in NYC has remained effectively flat, and the number of cyclists severely injured has gone down. That is a 72% reduction in risk to cyclists overall since 2000 in NYC," she says.

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The cyclists are concentrated on denser, busier roads.

"Because most public bike-sharing kiosks are located in dense urban environments with lower roadway speeds and higher levels of pedestrian activity, motorists are more readily looking out for pedestrians and bicyclists," the Mineta study reads.

Kate Fillin-Yeh agrees.

"If you look through the police records you'll find that most bike fatalities in NYC are happening outside of the Citi Bike zone," she says.

And since other cyclists also commute on the same streets as Citi Bikers, they bring even more safety in numbers.

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Plus, even though Citi Bike riders have slow bikes and travel through crowded areas, they still get to their destinations quickly.

Associated Press

The city's a hotbed for traffic congestion, and every New Yorker knows it. In midtown Manhattan, Citi Bikers clocked higher average speeds than taxis on the same roads, according to the New York Post.

And bike share programs are growing. San Francisco's bike share is expanding tenfold from 450 to 4,500 bikes, and Citi Bike is aiming for a whopping 12,000 new bikes, many in the city's outer boroughs.

So though it might sound intimidating to bike in New York, rest assured that biking in the city has never been as easy or safe as it has become in recent years.